“These things seem to have a sort of wisdom in… making little of oneself, and being cruel to the body, not honouring it…” (Col. 2:23, BBE).
“…But they have no value…”(Col. 2:23, GW).
Transparency moment! Probably like most human beings alive, I have been on a journey towards fully loving the body that God gave me… for as long as I can remember. Even as a little girl, I was convinced that I was bigger than I should have been. Now, I look back at photos of that time and wonder how in the world that notion got into my head. My little body was precious, and just right!
(Case in point: that’s me on the left).
(Very) long story short, the Lord has made a tremendous amount of progress over the years in bringing me to a place of cherishing the temple He lives in (i.e., me). I am not 100% there, but I am grateful to say that I have become extremely comfortable in my skin. My point in sharing this is that I believe He has two valuable nuggets of truth with which to encourage you today from my travels along this path:
- Daddy God does not want us to be harsh with what He loves. Holy Spirit took the above verse and applied it to the way I look at myself in the mirror. He gently corrected me and told me that He doesn’t desire for me to make little of myself, or to be cruel to my body. Instead, He invites me to honor it as His holy dwelling place. Yes, He has made my body, and yours, holy, through His blood (1 Cor. 3:17). Being holy is a big deal!
He actually spoke to me through the NIV’s wording of Colossians 2:23, asking me to stop the “harsh treatment” of my body. Now, I was not physically hurting my body; far from it. But I was being harsh towards it, in my own mind. I was looking in the mirror with a very critical spirit. He tenderly convicted me of this. Which brings me to my second point: - Jesus wants us to channel His love… to our very own selves. In that same moment, as I stood before the mirror, He spoke to me again. He said, “I want you to be a vessel of My love to yourself.” He pointed out that I have long been a willing channel of His love for other people. He asked me, “Now let me pour My love through you, to you.”
Can’t very well argue with that, now can you. Well, I suppose you can, but by now I’ve learned that God is always, always right. He really is. It works out better for us, the quicker we yield to what He is beckoning us to do.
This is what is on His heart for us today. Would it do you well to join me in repenting for harsh treatment of our bodies, for blows dealt out emotionally through our thoughts and attitudes towards ourselves? Does Jesus want to pour His love through you, to you today? Will you let Him?
Feeding On Jesus 